Hiroshima Exhibition
Contemporary Art Museum of São Paulo, 2005
Area: 14,015 sq ft/ 1.302 sq m

The Hiroshima Exhibition happened at the Bienal Pavilion in São Paulo, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, in 1957. The exhibit featured drawings by survivors of the bomb, from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum collection, as well as artwork by contemporary artists and Japanese descendants,  that were part of the collection of the Contemporary Art Museum of São Paulo. 

The design of the space resembles an origami shape. External walls displaying the drawings, arranged in chronological order, are painted black. The internal walls which are the background for contemporary art, are painted white, creating a contrast between death and life, darkness and light. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a dry, dead tree, hanging by a steel cable and hovering above the ground, at the entry of the space. This tree is surrounded by the phrase displayed at the memorial in Hiroshima of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who was 2 when the bomb detonated and died of cancer as a result of the radiation: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth.”